Recognition, Attachment, and the Social Bases of Self-Worth

Recognition theorists have often sought to justify calls for the recognition of identities or cultures on grounds that a culturally egalitarian societal environment is a crucial social basis of a sense of self-worth. In doing so they have often drawn on noncognitivist social-psychological theorizing. This paper argues that this theorizing does not support the recognition theorist's position. It is argued that attachment theory together with recent empirical evidence support a more attachment-focused and Rawlsian vision of self-worth's social bases according to which secure parent-child attachment, associational ties, equal basic rights and liberties, and economic and educational opportunities are what really matter.